Consequences
by hyperpsychomaniac
Summary: Mahad is tired of Cortes treating him like a kid, so when Cortes again tells him to stay put, Mahad is in no mood to listen. But is Mahad prepared to deal with the consequences of his actions?
1. Chapter 1

**Consequences**

Mahad flew the Hyperion low and fast between two blocks of floating earth. The ship shuddered slightly; he'd just clipped the rock face, leaving a line of dust trailing behind him. It had probably scratched the hull. At the moment, Mahad didn't care.

He was angry. Why did Cortes always have to treat him like such a kid? He was quite capable of taking on – and taking down - a few stray Sphere patrollers. Yet, somehow, it only resulted in Cortes yelling at him for 'rushing in before they'd fully assessed the situation'. Assessed?! This wasn't a school assignment, it was real life – and the destroyed S22s should've been good enough. That was what they wanted wasn't it? And Mahad had done it, without wasting any time 'assessing'. But that wasn't good enough for Cortes. It never was.

Mahad headed the Hyperion towards another block, the left nacelle fully in line to hit it. At the last second he spun the ship to vertical, and the block slipped past inches from the underside of the hull, before he completed the spin.

He flew the ship steady for a few seconds, wondering if the radio would suddenly come alive with Cortes shouted at him for pulling such reckless moves.

The Hyperion was flying ahead of the Saint Nazaire; they were heading back to Puerto Angel. Perhaps the only reason he hadn't been told to dock with the larger ship was that Cortes was too annoyed to want to look at him. That was fine with Mahad. So instead, he made sure he pulled as many dangerous stunts as he could. He knew Cortes would be able to see him. Right now, he was playing with him, and hopefully wearing his already worn patience thinner. Of course, he also suspected that Cortes knew he was trying to irritate him, and was making sure he ignored him as long as possible.

"Mahad, slow down now," Cortes growled from the radio suddenly.

Mahad let the Hyperion coast as he reached for the radio to reply. "Going too fast for you?"

"I'm serious, Mahad. We're getting some anomalies on the scanners. Slow down until we figure out what and where they are."

Mahad sighed in exasperation, and let the Hyperion slow down. "What sort of anomalies?"

"We don't know. That's why they're called anomalies," Cortes snapped. "Just stay put."

Mahad could hear Cortes begin to shout something across the bridge, and then the transmission cut out.

"Stop treating me like a kid!" Mahad shouted at the radio. It was off, and the sentence only bounced around the Hyperion's cockpit, but it made him feel a bit better. Yeah, he'd just sit here and let everyone else figure out what to do. Cortes obviously thought he was incapable of helping. But he _wasn't_ going to just sit around and wait to be told what he should do. "Well…" he muttered, and pushed the Hyperion's throttle forward ever so slightly, "There's an easy way to figure out what those 'anomalies' are…" He wasn't going to be stupid though. He knew he had no idea what could be in there. He would be careful. But it made sense to take a look. Better than sitting around while Cortes 'assessed'.

----

Cortes was leaning over Cheng's console, looking at the anomalies, now clearly displayed on the screen, when Dahlia called him.

"Captain!"

"Yes?"

"The Hyperion's moving again!"

"What?" Cortes growled. He activated the radio from Cheng's console. "Mahad! I gave you an order, stop your ship!"

"Look, you want to find out what's out there," Mahad replied. "I'm finding out."

"We know…"

"I'm not just being stupid. I'm getting the job done. I…"

"Stop the Hyperion!"

"You always think…" Mahad started, but then his sentence cut short, and a grinding noise came from the radio.

"Mahad!"

The radio spluttered with static for a moment. "… been hit by something. There must be other ships."

"Mahad, listen to me, there are no other ships. You've flown into a mine field!"

----

"Mine field?" Mahad repeated, wrestling the Hyperion back under control.

"They're some of ours from years ago. They're attracted to the Hyperion. Listen to me, you have to turn off the Hyperion's engine and stop immediately."

"What?" said Mahad. Suddenly a flash of blue and brown streaked in front of the windshield. Mahad swerved sharply, and something impacted the side of the ship. "I want to get out of here, Cortes! Not stop in the middle of it!"

"Damn it, Mahad!" Cortes shouted, his voice strained, "Would you listen to me for _once_? Stop the ship!"

Something slammed into the Hyperion again, and Mahad hadn't even seen it coming. He didn't know how to stop the mines, it seemed impossible to avoid him. So he shut down the engine and let the Hyperion coast to a halt. With nothing running, Mahad could tell the ship was most likely badly damaged. It listed slightly to the side, and the hull creaked horribly. But the frequent impacts had completely stopped.

"Mahad," Cortes' voice came over the radio, "are you alright?"

"Yeah…" Mahad replied, letting out a sigh of relief, "They've stopped hitting me for some reason."

"They're attracted to ships' engine reactors. They can't 'see' you if you've got nothing running."

"So… I'm safe?"

"No. Those mines are still fully active. They're just less likely to hit you."

Mahad exhaled slowly. He'd really gone and gotten himself into trouble this time. But how had he been supposed to know!? "So what am I supposed to do? Sit here?"

"Yes, Mahad. If you start that ship, you're dead, understand? Those are our mines, it shouldn't be too hard to regain control and deactivate them. I'll get Cheng on it. Till then, don't move, alright?"

"I'll stay put, promise." Mahad didn't really feel like getting blown up.

"Good." Cortes switched off the transmission.

Mahad tried calming himself down again. If they were the rebellion's mines, it would hopefully not take Cheng too long to shut them down. He took a look out the window, and his gaze immediately fell on something brown and blue, like the thing he'd dodged earlier. Mahad's heart rate picked up. The mine was spherical, made of metal, though it had probably started to rust, giving it an earthy colour. The blue came from what looked like seijin energy sparking around it. It would've been almost beautiful, if he hadn't known it could also be deadly. But it didn't look too close, and it wasn't attracted to the ship. It just drifted slowly, and looked like it'd just pass in front of the Hyperion. Mahad relaxed, and watched in drift across the blue sky, and then pass in front of the Hyperion's right nacelle.

_Wait… in front?!_ He'd thought it was some distance away. But in reality was far smaller than he'd thought, barely a few inches in diameter. And far closer. A tendril of energy touched the Hyperion's hull.

Mahad slammed his palm on the radio. "Cortes!"

Then the right engine exploded.

----

"The Hyperion's hit again!" Dahlia shouted. "It's going down!" She could see the warnings on her screen, and looking out the forward window she could see a trail of flame and smoke spinning out of control. It streaked across the sky, and plummeted into a block.

"He's landed on a block…" Wayan said from beside her, looking at the readouts on his screen, rather than out the forward window.

"Mahad! Do you read me?!" Cortes shouted into the radio. "Mahad! Damn it… he's not responding."

"I've got the mines down…" said Cheng.

"Are you sure you've got them all completely down, Cheng?" Cortes turned and asked him. "We don't want to hit any."

"Yeah, positive. So long as we don't go shooting any of them, they're not going to blow up."

"Good," Cortes growled. "Wayan, Dahlia, take the Saint Nazaire to the block the Hyperion's landed on." He paused for a second, and then added grudgingly, "Take it slowly."

The Saint Nazaire began moving towards the Hyperion.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n: **Sorry about the 'complete' thing guys. It wasn't actually complete... I just put something in wrong. Consequence of uploading stuff when I'm too tired to be uploading stuff... which means I shouldn't be uploading this now. I'm sure no one will complain. :P Now it will be complete.

And I could explain my whole reason for writing this thing... but will probably be obvious by the end of the fic. The fic can explain itself. Now go read it. :P

* * *

It took them nearly twenty minutes to land the Saint Nazaire on the block near to the Hyperion, and walk over to the downed ship. 

When both Cortes and Dahlia eventually got there, Mahad climbed up from beside the engine, waving a billow of smoke away from his face. "Took you guys long enough."

"We called you on the radio," Cortes growled.

"It busted when the Hyperion crashed. As did most of the other parts of the ship…" Mahad grumbled. He threw his hands in the air and looked around at the Hyperion, as if he couldn't decide which bit he was supposed to try and fix first.

Cortes sighed. "Can you get it to fly?"

Mahad looked at him, shocked, and then gestured around himself. "What do you think!?"

Cortes eyes narrowed. "Then I'll go help Wayan set up the winch and we can drag the Hyperion into the Saint Nazaire's hold. Dahlia, stay and help with this mess Mahad's made of his ship."

Dahlia closed her eyes for the briefest of moments, but made no other signs of her annoyance. "Yes, sir."

Cortes nodded to her, then turned and stamped back towards the Saint Nazaire.

"You know… at least I'm fine… even though the ship's not! Thanks for asking!"

Dahlia could've sworn she heard Cortes mutter something along the lines of 'won't be when I'm finished with you', but he didn't turn around to respond.

"I really don't think it's wise to push him," she growled at Mahad, once Cortes was out of ear shot.

Mahad shrugged. "Yeah… he's going to kill me…"

"Better him than these mines."

"I'm not so sure about that..." Mahad winced.

"And look what you did to the Hyperion!"

"What? I can fix it!"

"You'd better hope so…" said Dahlia as she climbed onto the deck of the Hyperion "those mines could've killed you, you know."

Mahad sighed. "They didn't, okay? You pirates spend too much time worrying about what _could_ happen."

"Yeah, now we have to worry about you being stupid on top of it all," Dahlia retorted.

"I'm not being stupid! You're as bad as Cortes. Just because I'm less scared than the lot of you doesn't make me stupid."

"There's a difference between fear and caution, Mahad. Ever think that Cortes knows what he's talking about when he tells you not to fly into something? Like the fact your ship blew up because…"

"I _get_ that! Okay!? I don't need you to spell it out. I blundered into a mine field, I trashed my ship, I'm lucky to be alive, blah, blah, blah…"

Dahlia growled. "Do you want help or not?"

"Not if you're going to treat me like an idiot. I can handle this."

"_That _is _your_ problem. _You _think you're capable of handling everything by just rushing into it."

"And I'm stupid and immature, yeah I get it."

"_I _didn't say immature. But that probably works too."

"Yeah!? And you're too… think you know everything…" Mahad trailed off and went back to tinkering with the engine, though Dahlia couldn't see what he was actually doing to fix it.

"Look… I'm not trying to call you stupid, Mahad. But look at your ship!"

"I _get_ it," Mahad growled. "Look, you want to help? Another part of the engine blew when I was trying to fix it. I think something got thrown over there… somewhere. Might be important."

Dahlia sighed. "Fine, I'll go look for it." She left Mahad, and slid down the deck into the grass. She wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, or just wanted to stop talking to her. Either way, she didn't particularly mind taking a walk away from him. He did seem to be a little more upset than usual, possibly because all of the damage the Hyperion had taken. Maybe it'd make him think twice about rushing into something in the future.

The grass on the block was almost knee-high. It was probably in a region that got a half decent amount of rain. But that only made it more difficult to find whatever part that had been thrown into it. The Hyperion had left a trail of churned up earth behind it, and there were burnt trails scattered around it. They would most likely where parts of the engine had been thrown. Dahlia made her way over to one of them, but then felt something crunch under her feet. She looked down, and calmly observed that it was not an engine part she had stepped on. The blue energy that was now twisting up her leg made it obvious that it was in fact a damaged mine.

----

Mahad was trying to see past the smoke in the Hyperion's engine to get at a bolt, when the explosion cut through the air. For a moment, he though something in the ship had blown, and he jumped back from the engine to avoid being hit by any debris. But the ship hadn't moved, so it must have been…

"Dahlia!"

He saw her as he stood upright on the deck. She was lying on the ground, the grass around her flattened. Her legs were twisted under her body, in a way that just didn't look right. And she wasn't moving.

Mahad swallowed hard, then realised he wasn't doing anything, when he should be doing _something._ "Dahlia…" he repeated again, this time choking over the word. Suddenly finding he could move, he ran to the edge of the deck. He slipped clumsily over the edge and rolled heavily in the grass, but got back up again. He had to get to her. He had to make sure she was okay.

Then he was by her side. But he didn't know what to do. He took her hand, and his eyes fell on her legs again. He looked away quickly. They were making it too hard for him to believe she'd be alright. He put his other hand on her far shoulder, willing her to move or do anything. "Dahlia? Come on, wake up…"

She opened her eyes then. Mahad felt her hand squeeze his.

"Dahlia… I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I'm sorry…"

Dahlia opened her mouth as if to say something, but the only thing that came out was a thin trail of blood. Then she coughed up even more, red and frothy. Mahad felt his stomach churn as she gripped his hand even tighter.

She gripped his shirt with her other hand suddenly, pulling him closer. The grip was weak, but Mahad let her drag him down until they were nearly touching noses. She tried to talk again, with him closer to her lips, but all Mahad could hear was her ragged breathing. She must have realised he couldn't hear her, because a look of frustration crossed her face.

Dahlia dragged down on Mahad's shirt again. He could feel she was weakening; he barely felt the tug. But he let her pull him closer anyway. He didn't know what else to do. And then her lips pressed against his.

Mahad wasn't sure exactly why she was doing it. So he just kissed her back, hoping he was in some way doing what she wanted. It was only when her hand slipped off his shoulder, and her lips stopped pressing into his, that he realised she was telling him goodbye.

Mahad pulled back from her. "Dahlia!?"

Suddenly Cortes was behind him. "What happened!?" He put a hand on Mahad's shoulder and pulled him away from Dahlia, and then knelt down beside her body, checking for vitals.

"She's…" Mahad started, pushing himself up from where Cortes had shoved him into the grass. He trailed off, putting a hand to his mouth. It tasted like copper, and when he pulled his hand away it had blood on it. Dahlia's blood. He looked across at Cortes, who was looking even less like he expected a response from Dahlia. "Cortes…"

"She's gone, Mahad," Cortes growled, shifting back from Dahlia. He didn't look at Mahad as he said it.

Mahad looked over at her lifeless body, and knew he was right. And it was all his fault. He felt his stomach churn again, and then turned to the side and threw up.

Cortes looked across at him, before moving away from Dahlia and coming and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Steady, lad…"

"I'm sorry…" Mahad choked out, trying to catch his breath, "This is all my fault…"

Cortes sighed, and closed his eyes for a moment. "Look, don't worry about that for now, alright Mahad?"

"Sorry…"

"You're not hurt, are you? Mahad?"

"… no… I wasn't anywhere…" he paused, regaining control of his voice, '… near her…"

"Alright."

Mahad felt Cortes squeeze his shoulder, and then heard him get up and switch on his radio.

"Wayan? I need you to check the area for any still active or damaged mines."

"What's happened?" Wayan asked, perhaps hearing from Cortes' voice that something was wrong.

Cortes took a deep breath before replying. When he did his voice was shaking. "I think Dahlia set one off. She's dead, Wayan."

Those words sunk into Mahad's mind as he sat there, and he knew she wasn't coming back. She was gone. He'd never thought that he was putting her in danger. He would've never flown into the mine field if he realised he was. But he couldn't change what had happened. And as he sat there, staring at Dahlia's unmoving body, he realised that perhaps that was why the pirates were so slow to take risks. They knew the consequences, and they knew they couldn't take them back.

He only wished, as he put his face into his hands and felt his whole body start to shake, that he had figured that out earlier.


End file.
